Monthly Archives: December 2014

Tom Wolfe used to say “The dark night of fascism is always descending on America, and always landing on Europe.” He is referring to dire predictions, bubbling up every few years, of an American fascist movement which never in fact arises, while our admired cousins across the sea seem to stumble into some form of […]

Rereading some of my old posts I came across this one, in which I carried on parallel discussions which at the time seemed to have nothing to do with each other, but which in retrospect were related. The idea of the post was to discuss the Holier-Than-Thou complex animating so many internet controversies using the example […]

Originally posted on Monster Hunter Nation: It is that time of year again, ‘tis the season, ‘tis the season for noun! Inspired by other bestselling Christmas novels about jars, boxes, letters, and sweaters, I decided that I too was entitled to write a Christmas novel featuring the magical powers of a noun. This is the…

Originally posted on Dover Beach: “Protestant culture decayed from within from a number of causes, all probably connected, although it is difficult to trace the connection; all probably proceeding from what physicists call the “auto-toxic” condition of the Protestant culture. We say that an organism has become “auto-toxic” when it is beginning to poison itself,…